“War of the Whales” by Joshua Horwitz – The Giants of the Deep

The ocean is in itself a vast mystery of which we have done nothing but scratch the surface so far, and though it covers so much of our planet, we often tend to forget about all of its innumerable inhabitants.

Whether we realize it or not, our noisy ways have already affected marine life tremendously, and in War of the Whales Joshua Horwitz explores this issue from a very realistic and interesting way.

In this book, we follow two protagonists who eventually team up: the attorney Joel Reynolds, and the marine biologist Ken Balcomb. Together, they attempt to expose a covert piece of technology used by the U.S. Navy: a high-intensity sonar detection system which forces whales towards beaches, where they recently started washing up at an alarming rate.

Naturally, there are many people out there who would prefer to see such a truth muffled, leading Reynolds and Balcomb on an epic uphill battle where not only the legality, but also the morality of it all are debated.

At first, War of the Whales seems, more or less, like your run-of-the-mill court battle novel, but straight away it becomes clear that there is much more to it than that. To begin with, the characters are all presented in intricate detail (the main ones at least), fleshed out rather completely to the point where you become so well-acquainted with their life stories that they start feeling like old friends to the reader. This results in very believable, likeable and relatable characters carrying the story forward.

Once it becomes a question of plot, it certainly shows that Horwitz did his fair share of research, plunging deep into the science and facts behind sonar technology and the nefarious effects it has on marine life.

Nothing ever gets stale in this one, as there are more than enough impactful subplots to keep things flowing and give it all some variety; we get a clear image of not only what happens behind closed doors, but also directly on the playing field, so to speak.

In my opinion, where this book truly shines through though is in its approach to the morality of it all: does the need to preserve the environment trump the government's duty to maintain national security?

Is wildlife something worth trading for safety, to better society's chances of survival?

This is no fairy tale with an obligatory happy ending, where everything will always turn out fine; Horwitz takes a very realistic approach to the whole thing, preferring to draw people's eyes to a very concrete and pressing matter by depicting it in all of its true and unadulterated horror.

Those of you out there who feel an attraction to marine life, are interested in learning about how we affect them, and perhaps looking for smooth and enthralling novel with a heavy inclination towards scientific and legal matters, then I wholeheartedly recommend you check this book out.

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Joshua Horwitz Joshua Horwitz is an American author and is the founder as well as the publisher of Living Planet Books. He dedicates most of his concentration towards literature put forth by the great scientists, doctors and psychologists of our time. His best-known book is arguably his most recent one, War of the Whales.